India is a melting pot of multiple cultures, religions, diaspora and languages. Although 22 languages are recognised officially, more than 100 languages and dialects are spoken across the country. In the past decade, India has witnessed stupendous growth digitally - in 2019, the number of smartphone users in rural areas surpassed that of urban India. There is a burgeoning market for digital products, going well beyond borders of urban pockets. However, less than 1% of content on the Internet is in English.

The All India Robotics Association (AIRA), a not-for-profit trade body of robotic enterprises, was launched here on Tuesday to make India the global leader in robotics production and technologies. Harshitha Puvvala, Founder and President of AIRA, said the body, the first in India, will work to support, nurture and create robotics business opportunities in the country. The other goals are to create and standardise robotics education curriculum, standardised design technologies for robot designing, make India a global robotics manufacturer, and establish a world-class robotics centre and museum in Hyderabad, all with a single goal to create a business export path of $350 million by 2022. At the launch event, Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Electronics and Communications, government of Telangana, said that during the lockdown many manufacturers using industrial robots have overcome manpower shortage and continued uninterrupted production. The power of robots is also being increased by adding Artificial Intelligence, because of which robots are also becoming intelligent now, Jayesh said.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said that the government is focused to make India a $1 trillion digital economy which includes new technologies powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, digital payments, e-commerce, and IoT(internet of things). "India took 55 years to raise its economy to $1 trillion whereas in the past 5 years, under the Narendra Modi government Indian economy has reached the milestone of $2.7 trillion. The next goal is to reach $5 trillion economy. The government is keen to make digital economy a $1 trillion economy, "Prasad said. He also mentioned at'Google for India' that the government is actively working upon creating an India envisioned by P.M. in 2014, where IT IT IT (Information technology Indian Talent India Tomorrow).

Government Support: The government has shown great support in leveraging AI. NITI Aayog's unique brand called #AIforAll is an approach that focuses on how India can leverage the transformative technologies to ensure social and inclusive growth in line with the development philosophy of the government. It aims to enhance and empower human capabilities to address the challenges of access, affordability, shortage and inconsistency of skilled expertise. It also aims to tackle some global challenges from the AI perspective, be it an application, research, development, technology or responsible AI. With this initiative, it has extended its support in the areas of healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure and smart mobility and transportation sectors.